Jeremy Hunt passes protesters outside the Tory party conference in Manchester. He said the cuts were ‘about creating a culture where work is at the heart of our success’.
Photograph: Natasha Quarmby/Rex Shutterstock

British people will be encouraged to work as hard as the Chinese and Americans because the Conservatives have cut the money people can make from tax credits, the health secretary has said.

Jeremy Hunt told a fringe meeting at the party’s autumn conference that cuts to tax credits were designed to send an “important cultural signal” about hard work, as well as saving money.

Embroiling his party in fresh controversy on the subject, as he strayed from his usual brief to defend the government’s welfare changes, Hunt also suggested that those reliant on benefits lacked the dignity and self-respect of those who earned all their own money.

Asked whether the pace of the tax credit changes, which will see some of the UK’s poorest workers lose up to £1,300 a year, should be slowed, the cabinet minster said: “No. We have to proceed with these tax credit changes because they are a very important cultural signal.

“My wife is Chinese. We want this to be one of the most successful countries in the world in 20, 30, 40 years’ time. There’s a pretty difficult question that we have to answer, which is essentially: are we going to be a country which is prepared to work hard in the way that Asian economies are prepared to work hard, in the way that Americans are prepared to work hard? And that is about creating a culture where work is at the heart of our success.”

Jeremy Hunt’s remarks show a lack of respect for working people | Letters

Read more

Hunt also suggested that those reliant on tax credits and benefits lacked self-respect. “Dignity is not just about how much money you have got ... officially, children are growing up in poverty if there is an income in that family of less than £16,500. What the Conservatives say is how that £16,500 is earned matters.

“It matters if you are earning that yourself, because if you are earning it yourself you are independent and that is the first step towards self-respect. If that £16,500 is either a high proportion or entirely through the benefit system you are trapped. It is about pathways to work, pathways to independence ... It is about creating a pathway to independence, self-respect and dignity.”

His comments provoked a furious response from Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, who said Hunt’s comments were a “disgraceful insult from the richest member of the cabinet to millions of people struggling to get by, working hard for long hours in insecure employment.

“In a country that already works some of the longest hours in the western world, these comments are simply an outrageous slur on the all too many workers juggling two and three jobs to put food on the table and a roof over their kids’ heads.”

Owen Smith, the shadow work and pensions secretary, also said: “It is a kick in the teeth for working families to hear Jeremy Hunt patronisingly say that the reason they are struggling to pay the bills is because they are not working hard enough.”

However, Hunt stood by his words, claiming their intent had been “wilfully misinterpreted” by others.

“I made clear the culture we want to move to is one where work brings dignity and higher pay, and welfare dependency is reduced,” he said later. “There was never a suggestion that people don’t work hard enough, only that we need to remove the barriers to a high-wage, low-dependency economy, which the national living wage is designed to do.”

Boris Johnson is pelted with balls as he arrives at the Conservative conference.

The issue of tax credits has dominated the first few days of Conservative party conference, with a number of Tory MPs uneasy about their impact on low earners.

Boris Johnson, the London mayor and potential future leadership contender, will use his speech to party conference on Tuesday to signal he wants to see greater protection for these workers.

“We must ensure that as we reform welfare and we cut taxes that we protect the hardest working and lowest paid: shops workers, cleaners, the people who get up in the small hours or work through the night because they have dreams for what their families can achieve.”

David Cameron insisted on Sunday that people would not be worse off as a result of the changes, and George Osborne, the chancellor, used his conference speech on Monday to claim that a typical family with parents working full time on the minimum wage would actually be £2,000 better off as a result of a host of changes, including wage increases.

But the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Resolution Foundation say the welfare cuts in Osborne’s summer budget would leave some of Britain’s poorest families up to £1,300 a year out of pocket.

Paul Johnson, the director of the IFS, has said it is “arithmetically impossible” for workers not to lose out from the cuts.

A number of Tory ministers have been dispatched to fringe meetings and on to the airwaves to defend the cuts. However, Hunt’s intervention is not likely to be seen as helpful at a time when senior Tories are trying to defuse the row over whether millions of the poorest workers are going to lose money.

There had been speculation that Cameron and Osborne would have to announce some measures to soften the blow in the autumn statement, especially as the Sun newspaper has come out against the harshness of the changes.

On Tuesday, Cameron will announce separate benefit changes to punish parents whose children play truant and do not pay penalties. In such cases, they will have their child benefit docked if the civil penalty of up to £120 goes unpaid after 28 days.

The prime minister will also reveal a new right for parents to request childcare at their children’s school and a right for childcare providers to request use of schools sites outside of teaching hours.